Radical Doula

I found a thread on alldoulas.com about the article I wrote a while back about Being a Radical Doula, and specifically, how birth activism and abortion advocacy go hand in hand.

It’s interesting to see how doulas react to this discussion of the connections between the movements. I highly recommend checking it out.

Oh, and by the way, the tagline for the site is:

I would say supporting women who have abortions falls under that category nicely…but you all know that already.

Here are some highlights that I think are interesting:

it *ABSOLUTELY* reflects my views and my experience as a doula & reproductive rights activist, and im super excited to have read it, and to see it on alldoulas! this is another kind of dialogue that helps us learn from each other, and im excited to welcome it into our community…my 2 deepest interests in this world are definitely birthing and abortion, both of which i support adamantly and am deepy committed to women’s right and access to…ive never mentioned the word abortion here before, and i dont think i ever would have unless id read this post today.

A less supportive one:

I’m also what might be considered more of a ‘baby activist’ than a ‘woman activist’, if that makes any sense? I don’t judge those who choose abortion because I have NOT walked in their shoes and it’s not my place to judge. I do, however, feel that they should be counseled…not necessarily against it, but to know where their baby is developmentally, to see it on an u/s, to KNOW what the entire process entails physically, emotionally, mentally. I just hate hearing women say ‘they told me it wasn’t a baby’ or whatever and no one ever told them what was really going on OR that they had more choices than just having an abortion. There is support out there for women who don’t have great families or partners, etc. There’s also adoption (but I know this is a whole other topic where women, esp young girls, could potentially be taken advantage of and made to feel inadequate…) Anywho…the moral of my story is I’m all for women being EDUCATED!

I hate that argument, that women don’t know what they are doing when they make a decision to have an abortion. Totally untrue–and just shows a misogynistic view of women, just like Justice Kennedy in his Abortion Ban decision.

And another not-so supportive opinion:

This will probably be my only post on this thread, as this is a topic that so saddens me. I am an advocate for moms and babies. Aborting babies is totally opposite from that in my view. As much as I believe in a mothers right to choose in how she will give birth, I also strongly believe in the baby’s right to live. If you could ask him/her, I’m sure that they would choose to live. We are even talking about baby girls…who should be our future women…whose rights have been stripped away.

When I was new in this doula work, I started out assuming that most in the childbirth field would naturally be pro-life. It was very hard for me to comprehend how doulas and midwives could be pro-abortion. It still is, actually. I guess that I’m not a radical doula by description of this article, and that is quite ok. I will go on supporting moms and their babies, which in my very strong opinion is anything but what I just read in that article.

Check out the complete thread here.

And thanks to the person who posted my article on the site, this is exactly the kind of dialogue doulas need.